Maria Grazia Simonetta
was born in Vigevano, (Pavia) Italy on the 10th October
1955. Thoh an artist of remarkable versatility, today
she is mainly known in Italy and abroad as a portrait painter on an
international level.
Recently nominated as the Official Portraitist for the Royal
House of Bourbon -Two Sicilies, she is noted for having immortalized
important representatives of the church, nobility and cultural
circles from Monte Carlo, Rome, Geneva, Milan and not least the Vatican.
To mention for example some members of the Royal House of Bourbon-Two
Sicilies, the House of Savoy and the Grimaldi’s of the Principality of
Monaco.
Her paintings are housed in rooms of the Vatican, Royal Palaces,
Portrait Galleries of Bishop’s Palaces, State Rooms, University
Libraries, Civic Museums and important collections both in Italy
and abroad.
She is considered by many to be the last pupil and therefore heir to
the nineteenth century Lombardy school which, through the teaching in
Milan of Francesco Hayez, continued for more than a hundred years
forming great names amongst fresco painters, artists and portraitists.
In fact at the Academy of Brera in Milan, great artists such as
Sabatelli, Hayez, Bertini, Cesare Tallone and others taught young
pupils from Vigevano such as Garberini and Luigi Bocca, the latter
became a well known portrait painter who together with his son and
daughter, Anna and Carlo, in the early nineteen hundreds worked on the
frescoes of the Leonardo Ducal Square of Vigevano, one of the
most beautiful squares in the world.
It was in the very studio of Anna and Carlo Bocca and in that of the
great master of colour, Ermenegildo Bacchella ,that Simonetta from the
young age of thirteen learnt the ancient techniques for preparing a
background or impasto, and how to use the blending of colours and
tones knowledgeably. An even deeper understanding of these skills was
acquired in successive years in the studio of the restorer Fabrizio
Frattina, pupil of Mauro Pelliccioli.
Following a Law Degree obtained at the University of Pavia she
abandoned a forensic career almost immediately to dedicate herself to
art, exhibiting in cities and art galleries ever more renowned:
from Genoa to Turin, to Bologna, to Marbella (Spain) and others.
After a period of absence from artistic circles due to the birth of her
three children, Simonetta returned to her career as an artist in 1995
and in 1998 and in the year 2000 her town dedicated an
anthological and a personal exhibition to her in the famous Sforza
Castle.
Her recognition as an international artist was crowned by a personal
showing she prepared in 2001 in Monte Carlo (Principality of Monaco) in
the Cultural Centre of H.S.H Prince Albert where she was also nominated
as an active member of this centre.
This exhibition was honoured not only by the presence of its patron and
His Excellence Monsieur Bernard Barsì Archbishop of the Principality
but also by the highest offices and authorities and by numerous
representatives from the Italian and Foreign Consulates.
On this occasion the artist met Princess Camilla of Bourbon-Two
Sicilies, a woman of extraordinary artistic sensibility with vast
cultural interests, who immediately showed a fervid appreciation of
Simonetta’s paintings and who in the following years together with her
husband Prince Carlo, continued to encourage the artist to pursue her
work.
It was the fact that Prince Carlo and Princess Camilla of Bourbon –Two
Sicilies, were so pleased with their official portraits painted by
Simonetta that enabled her to realize one of her most important works:
in 2005 for the coronation of H.S.H Prince Albert as Prince Sovereign
in succession to his father Prince Ranier, Simonetta was commissioned
to paint the official portrait for the event, this painting is now
conserved in the Principality of Monaco in the private apartment of his
Royal Highness in the Prince’s Palace.
Other recognitions are not lacking: in Geneva on consigning a portrait
of Prince Filiberto of Savoy she was decorated with the title Dame of
the Order of Merit of Savoy and subsequently she was awarded the Gold
Medal of Merit of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint
George, headed by the Bourbon –Two Sicilies families and consequently
invested as Constantinian Dame.
Although at this stage Simonetta is quite well known in reality little
is known about her, she doesn’t exhibit her works frequently and often
does not reveal even to the subject portrayed the true title or message
contained in the painting.
However some have begun to surmise that behind that able technique of
representing reality there is an enigmatic artist launching subliminal
messages hidden in an apparently traditional picture.
There are still life elements, landscapes and above all dragons which
open the door to a metaphysical and conceptual world giving the
portrait a new key with which to interpret what at this point is no
longer simply a portrait.
For years a theological message has been underlined connecting
Christian symbols (always accompanied by the comment of a biblical
expert) evident in the collection of Dragons presented both in Monte
Carlo and in Rome to the President of the Pontifical Commission for the
Cultural Heritage of the Church who was to write,”…a significant work,
fruit of excellent technique, profound sensibility and awareness of
heavenly things…”
Other such religious symbolism is also easily legible in two great
altarpieces one consigned to Prince Augusto Ruffo of Calabria,
illustrious delegate of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of St
George and the second painted for a Church of the Foundation of St
Anna, but her maximum expression is found in a portrait consigned in
2007 to Pope Benedict XVI who greatly appreciated the message contained
in the Vineyard of the Lord, the water, the ray of the trinity and in
the other symbols placed in the background of this portrait.
Yet another important event was the unveiling of a portrait of the
deceased H.M.E.H the Prince and Grand Master Frà Andrew Bertiè which
was delivered in June 2008. This took place in the headquarters of the
Sovereign Military Order of Malta, in the presence of the delegate Dr
Guidobono Cavalchini, of the Prelate of the Order H.E. Archbishop
Monsieur Angelo Acerbi and numerous other figures including civil and
military authorities.